Ingenhoven Architects + Architectus

摘要

Located in the historic heart of Sydney CBD,1 Bligh Street sits within the valley created by the Macquarie Street ridge to the east and the tall buildings on George Street to the west. A shift in the street grid, together with a significant change in the topography, aligns the site diagonally with Sydney Harbor. The elliptical form amplifies this relationship, maximizing outlook while presenting an elegant, singular form when viewed from the harbor. The ground floor is conceived as a public room and offered to the city. Broad curving exterior steps, at the main entrance, rise to a sheltered public wintergarden, and provide a generous seating area engaging the immediate urban field. The internal organization resists a centralized core to achieve visual expanse, inter-connectivity and communication. Close proximity of usable floor space to the facade is maximized, and contiguous column-free space creates flexibility. A naturally ventilated glass atrium extends the full building height. Glass elevators rapidly traverse the vertical section; they add to, and participate in, the dramatic spatial atmosphere. A double-skin, glass facade operates as an environmental shield. The outer glass skin protects computer-controlled shades, shieldingthe double-glazed curtain wall from the sun, whilst reflecting natural light into the building. The strategy permits the use of low-iron glass, and achieves an ethereal lightness unexpected in the curtain wall tower skins. The atrium and breakout spaces to the south are naturally ventilated. Free heating is provided by in-slab pipework, supplied by the heat rejected via the cooling towers, and cooled by relief air from the office spaces. Passive strategies for environmental control are seamlessly integrated with emerging and highly efficient technologies, extending from air conditioning to a trigeneration system employing gas and solar energy to generate cooling, heating and electricity. Solar thermal collectors drive the cooling systems, waste water is treated and rainwater harvested to achieve efficacies throughout. 1 Bligh Street's Six-Star Green Star rating score is the highest awarded in New South Wales, and includes the maximum allowable five points for innovation in categories such as environmental design initiative, and for exceeding Green Star benchmarks. The tower culminates in a roof garden: a potent symbol of the project's ongoing contribution to the health of its occupants and the city.